The relationship between liberal democracy and capitalism has formed a successful dyad which western nations have thrived on. Yet, when one delves into this relationship it becomes clear that it is not always harmonious. In order to understand why the relationship between the two has caused such a contentious debate a deeper look into the term liberal democracy must occur. The concept of liberal democracy encompasses liberal and democratic values like limited government, individual rights, the rule of law, political equality, as well as the democratic process as a whole. Although a capitalist economy supports most of these values some like, political equality seem at first to be contradicted by capitalism. At the conclusion of this paper it will be clear, however, that a capitalist economy supports liberal democracy.
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Critics of the relationship between capitalism and liberal democracy consistently take aim at how capitalism undermines political equality. This is a popular target for critics that start by pointing to the economic inequality that a capitalist economy produces. The article "Economics against Democracy" by Manuel Couret Branco argues that a capitalist economy actually weakens political equality by the uneven distribution of wealth that inevitably occurs in a capitalist society. For Branco, the substantial wealth that accumulates for a few in a capitalist system also grants these individuals the ability to influence the processes that operate a democracy. Certainly, a substantial amount of wealth in this type of system would grant any successful capitalist the ability to afford to pay lobbyists to leverage their government for their own gain. In such a system wealth would even allow a successful capitalist to run for office so that they could influence government directly and possibly even for their own gain. Unfortunately, for Branco his underlying argument that capitalism leads to corruption is easily refuted because liberal democracies simply create laws to prevent this type of corruption and since the rule of law applies to all citizens these people are held accountable for any laws they break in spite of how much wealth or power they may have.